Nothing Like a White Rose

I have three "white" rose plants and I love them all.  White roses stand out so beautifully- the blooms are highly visible from a distance - and they look great even under moonlight.  There is something delicate and enticing about them that is different from other colors of roses to me.  They are quite difficult to photograph with my cheap digital camera because they capture too much light and are overly bright under normal lighting conditions.

Ducher

This first picture is a wonderful China rose called Ducher.  It is one of the famous Earthkind roses, which means it is one of the most maintenance free of them all.  Ducher has a slight yellow tinge to it at first bloom. It has a slight but noticeable and lemony fragrance.  The bush form is full and lush getting to about 5' x 5' around.  I never spray mine and it gets practically no disease in my Louisiana climate.  If there is a complaint against this rose it is that the blooms crisp in the heat of summer and are much smaller.  In spring and fall this plant really shines.

Madame Alfred Carriere

 This next rose is actually a very light pink in color, but it quickly fades to almost pure white after being open for a few hours.  It is Madame Alfred Carriere, a rose sometimes classified as a noisette and sometimes as a tea.  It is a vigorous climber with a sweet, wafting fragrance that is impossible to miss.  The rose is a bushy climber that gets both long and full.  First bloom in spring is spectacular with the vine being covered with blooms.  The fragrance will fill a yard at that time.  It blooms more sporadically throughout the summer and then puts on a fairly large flush again in Autumn.  I get maybe 30% leaf loss on this plant in the summer without spraying at all.  I can't imagine not having this rose, but it definitely needs lots of space.  One last thing I appreciate about this rose is the small number of thorns it has.

Prosperity

Prosperity is the whitest of the white.  It's nearly pure white right from the start.  It blooms in large clusters on a sprawling plant that doesn't know if it wants to be a climber or a shrub.  It is in the hybrid musk family of roses and has the distinct and lovely fragrance of that clan.  Mine stays beautiful without spray and blooms 9 months out of the year for me.  I've seen this rose especially recommended for a wedding rose because of its beauty and fragrance.  The blooms are smaller and get easily crisped around the edges in the hot part of summer, so it looks its best in spring and fall.  One of the things I like best about this rose is that it has ready-made bouquets.  You can cut off one of the clusters of bloom, put them straight into a vase, and set them anywhere in the house for a beautiful look and a natural air-freshener.

These are three of the very best white roses for Louisiana.  To this list I might only add the popular polyantha, Marie Pavie.  Marie Pavie is a smaller shrub with fragrant blooms on a plant with few thorns.  I don't currently have one of these, but it's on my wish list!

A Visit With the Madame

Madame Alfred Carriere ("MAC") is a fine old white, climbing rose with a sweet fragrance that wafts on the breeze on a cool spring morning.  The buds start off a light, soft pink.

They stay this light pink as they open, but soon fade to a lovely, pure white.  This plant will be covered in blooms in a week or so.

It becomes quite a large climber in the South.  Mine is planted in the shadow of a big live oak tree and so is not in the ideal location.  Still, it's making the best of the situation and blooms beautifully.  There is a large flush in the spring, followed by sporadic blooms throughout the summer, and another smaller flush in the fall.  She loses about half her leaves to blackspot during the summer, but readily recovers and shrugs off the disease.  If you plant this rose on a pergola or arbor, you might also want to plant some bush rose at its base to hide the bare legs.   I recommend Marie Pavie as a nice complementary rose to go with this one.  Another thing to like about MAC is how few thorns she has. 

Madame Alfred Carriere

Madame Alfred Carriere is an old-fashioned climbing rose that makes blushing pink/white blooms with a sweet fragrance that wafts throughout an area.  It's a very fast-growing climber that can easily take over a pergola in a couple of years.  Mine is growing in the part shade of a live oak tree, so it's not nearly in an ideal location, but it's just shrugging it off and still growing like crazy.  First off, I've got a pic of one whole limb.  This plant is so big that it's hard to get a whole bush shot of it.

Next up is a close-up of one of the blooms.  Deeper in the summer when it gets hot, the blooms have less pink and are almost pure white.  This rose will bloom off and on from spring till frost.  It makes larger flushes in the spring and fall.  It does get some blackspot for me, but only enough to take about 40% of the leaves off in the worst part of the season.  I don't spray it at all.